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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Protest at Home of Perdue Slaughterhouse Director

January 29, 2025

Jason Arnold, Director of Operations for Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse, ignored activists’ requests for a meeting regarding documented criminal animal cruelty at the slaughterhouse

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PRESS RELEASE

Activists Protest at Home of Perdue Slaughterhouse Director

January 29, 2025

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PRESS

Judge: Let special prosecutor decide if Ridglan Farms committed crimes

January 9, 2025

The Isthmus

“Petitioners have shown that there is probable cause to believe that Ridglan has committed crimes under Wisconsin’s animal cruelty laws, and the district attorney has failed to issue a complaint or commence an investigation into Ridglan’s conduct,” the ruling states. “Based on the entirety of the record, the Court grants Petitioners’ Petition to appoint a special prosecutor.”

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PRESS

Judge: Let special prosecutor decide if Ridglan Farms committed crimes

January 9, 2025

The Isthmus

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BLOG

I Might Go to Prison in 2025. I Need Your Help More Than Ever.

December 29, 2024

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BLOG

I Might Go to Prison in 2025. I Need Your Help More Than Ever.

December 29, 2024

The silver lining of repression is that it gives movements the opportunity to prove how strong they are. While the past year has been hard, I feel incredibly grateful for all of the ways the animal rights movement has grown and persevered.

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists Create Giant “Death for Dinner” Display Outside Oakland Safeway

December 14, 2024

Activists covered in fake blood lay down on a giant “plate” to bring attention to the violence behind serving dead animals as food during the holidays. Protestors also called on Safeway to cut ties with Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry, where undercover investigations have exposed sick and injured animals left without care.

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Rights Activists Create Giant “Death for Dinner” Display Outside Oakland Safeway

December 14, 2024

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BLOG

Berkeley’s Measure DD Is a Win for Horses and All Animals

December 12, 2024

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BLOG

Berkeley’s Measure DD Is a Win for Horses and All Animals

December 12, 2024

“Do we have factory farms in Berkeley?” was a common response I got when collecting signatures. I explain that we want to prevent another animal gambling operation from opening up in Golden Gate Fields’ absence. Plus, Berkeley can be the first municipality to ban CAFOs and set a precedent that other places can follow. Berkeley voters understood. They signed the petition, and this November, they voted yes. Measure DD passed with 62% “YES” votes, making history for animal and environmental protection.

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PRESS

Activists Face Harsh Penalties for Exposing Cruelty

December 8, 2024

Sonoma State Star

Rosenberg said she has been openly rescuing animals from abuse and suffering since 2018, and she has helped more than 1,000 animals. This will be the first time she has faced criminal charges. “This is a political prosecution. The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office wants to protect Perdue’s reputation and make an example of me to stop other people from rescuing animals. Unfortunately for them, it isn’t going to work,” she said.

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PRESS

Activists Face Harsh Penalties for Exposing Cruelty

December 8, 2024

Sonoma State Star

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PRESS

Opinion: Berkeley Can Lead the Way to a Factory Farm-Free Future

December 3, 2024

Berkeleyside

When more people pay attention and take action to stop the devastating impact of CAFOs on animals, the environment and humans, we can correct our misguided path and put ourselves on the right side of history.

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PRESS

Opinion: Berkeley Can Lead the Way to a Factory Farm-Free Future

December 3, 2024

Berkeleyside

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Berkeley Becomes the First US City to Ban Factory Farming

November 12, 2024

Plant Based News

Currently, there are no CAFOs in Berkeley. The last remaining farm, a horse racing facility named Golden Gate Fields, closed in June of this year following prolonged protests over animal deaths. The new ban will ensure that no CAFOs can be built in the city.

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Berkeley Becomes the First US City to Ban Factory Farming

November 12, 2024

Plant Based News

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PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley Becomes First U.S. City to Ban Factory Farms

November 12, 2024

A coalition of groups, including the Berkeley-based animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and Compassionate Bay, led the effort to gather the signatures to get this CAFO ban on the ballot.

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PRESS RELEASE

Berkeley Becomes First U.S. City to Ban Factory Farms

November 12, 2024

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Our Top Press Hits

TOP PRESS

She Said She Was Rescuing Chickens. A Jury Convicted Her of Conspiracy.

October 29, 2025

The New York Times

The four chickens she took with her — whom she named Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea — are alive at a sanctuary for rescued farm animals, she said. “I will not apologize for taking sick, neglected animals to get medical care,” Ms. Rosenberg said in a statement. “When we see cruelty and violence, we can choose to ignore it or to intervene and try to make the world a better place.”

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TOP PRESS

She Took Chickens from a Slaughterhouse. Was It a Rescue or a Crime?

October 24, 2025

The Guardian

I asked Rosenberg what outcome she was hoping for. “My ideal outcome is honestly just whatever is best for the animals,” she said. “An acquittal wouldn’t set an actual legal precedent, but it would set a social precedent, to some extent, and send an important message.”

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TOP PRESS

UC Berkeley Activist Testifies She Saved Sick Birds, Not Stole Them, in Chicken Rescue Trial

October 17, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

Before a jury in a Sonoma County courthouse, Rosenberg testified that she believed at the time that her actions, often called “open rescue,” were “lawfully justified” to prevent what she considered “criminal animal abuse” by Petaluma Poultry, a Sonoma-based operation owned by Perdue Farms, a major poultry supplier nationwide.

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TOP PRESS

How the FBI and Big Ag Started Treating Animal Rights Activists as Bioterrorists

June 2, 2025

The Intercept

“Animal rights and environmental groups have committed more acts of terrorism than Al Qaeda,” warned an FBI agent who met with Big Ag groups.

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TOP PRESS

This California Student Could Go to Prison for Taking Four Chickens. Was It a Crime or a ‘Rescue’?

May 1, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle

Just four months after she graduates on May 17 with a bachelor’s degree in social movement strategy, the straight-A student will stand trial in a Sonoma County courtroom for her June 2023 incursion into Petaluma Poultry, a processing facility owned by agribusiness giant Perdue Farms. If convicted for taking four chickens Perdue valued at around $24, she faces up to 5½ years in prison.

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TOP PRESS

These California and Colorado Ballot Measures Are Terrifying the Meat Industry

October 10, 2024

Vox

In principle, there’s a lot of sense in capping the size of factory farms. Measure J’s proponents are betting that progressive Sonoma County, better known for its tasting rooms than its slaughterhouses, can push California — and the nation — in that direction.

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TOP PRESS

Secret Recordings Capture the Ugly Reality Inside a Denver Slaughterhouse

October 9, 2024

The Intercept

Videos shared with The Intercept prior to the report’s public release show, among other scenes, lambs with their throats slit hanging upside down and thrashing on the slaughter line; one animal with an internal organ that has been torn inside-out and left dangling behind it as it heads to slaughter; injured lambs being led to slaughter; workers laughing, spanking animals, and engaging in simulated sex acts with nearby machinery as lambs are having their throats slit; and the apparent use of so-called Judas sheep — adult sheep kept alive at the facility and used to lead the young sheep to slaughter.

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TOP PRESS

Sonoma Loves Its Farms. Activists Call Them Factories. Could a Ballot Measure Upend This County?

August 30, 2024

San Francisco Chronicle

In dimly lit indoor aisles at Weber Family Farms in Petaluma, hundreds of thousands of white chickens live out their 90 weeks of life. They fly from perch to perch. They dust bathe in the bedding. They nip at water dispensers. They lay egg after egg. And they never leave. These barns are at the heart of a bitter fight that Mike Weber and Samantha Faye are waging for the future of local farming.

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TOP PRESS

Groups Seek to Ban Large-Scale Animal Farming in Sonoma County

April 4, 2024

Los Angeles Times

Lewis Bernier, an animal rights activist supporting the initiative, said he has visited several factory farms across the country, documenting inhumane treatment, and one farm in Sonoma County stands out as having “the worst and most systemic animal cruelty that I’ve ever seen.”

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DxE's Blog

BLOG

Two cows freed themselves, but now they’re at risk of slaughter again.

August 3, 2022

Let this story be a reminder that animals do fight for their freedom and that they participate in their own liberation.

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BLOG

On the Anniversary of Unseen, We Came to Bear Witness

July 21, 2022

Activists gathered for a vigil exactly two years after the release of Unseen, a documentary that exposed the horrors inside Yosemite Foods, a slaughterhouse in Stockton, California, that kills 2,000 pigs every day.

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BLOG

What I learned from saving Chester – then watching him die

July 19, 2022

DxE co-founder Wayne Hsiung recently shared the story of a very sick pig who was rescued from Farmer John. This is an excerpt from his Substack blog, The Simple Heart.

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BLOG

Why I Disrupted Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

July 5, 2022

Our signs read “Expose Smithfield’s Deathstar” referring to Smithfield’s Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah, the largest pig farm in the country. While many criticized the tackiness and absurdity of the action, it garnered much needed media attention.

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BLOG

The largest pig slaughterhouse in California is shutting down.

July 2, 2022

Here's what this could mean.

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BLOG

Activists display massive 100 foot banner on overpass calling on Golden Gate Fields to shut down

June 25, 2022

The protest occurred after yet another horse was killed at the horse racing track that spans Berkeley and Albany.

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BLOG

DxE activists talk with Senator Cory Booker about upcoming Smithfield trial

June 25, 2022

Senator Booker spoke about the need for nonviolent direct action and for "not being spectators in democracy!"

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BLOG

As Farmer John Slaughterhouse Closes, Our Work Must Continue

June 14, 2022

As happy as I am to see Smithfield leave California, they should not be allowed to simply cut and run. They must adequately compensate their workers, provide appropriate care for their pigs, and clean up the damage done to the surrounding community and to the L.A. river.

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BLOG

Tulare County Dairy Farms Are Poisoning Latino Communities

May 20, 2022

Over the last few decades, the Central Valley of California has become plagued by the crisis of dirty drinking water contaminated with nitrates. Latino communities have been disproportionately affected. In the heart of the valley lies Tulare County, a majority Latino district and the largest dairy producing county in the nation.

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Our Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

San Francisco Supervisors Call for Statewide Factory Farm Moratorium

November 16, 2021

“No More Factory Farms” campaign asks legislators to prohibit the construction of new factory farms and slaughterhouses

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PRESS RELEASE

SF In-N-Out Protested with Creepy 16-Foot “Squid Game” Doll, Dozens of Actors Simulating Murderous Game

October 29, 2021

“Red Light, Green Light” demonstration inspired by hit show dramatizes activists’ concerns about animal cruelty and supply chain transparency

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PRESS RELEASE

TYSON IS SCARY: UCB Students Protest University Sourcing from “Family” Factory Farms

October 27, 2021

UCB administrators claim the world’s largest chicken producer doesn’t use factory farming

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PRESS RELEASE

Case Dismissed Against Protester Who Sprayed Pig Feces at Smithfield CEO’s Home

October 13, 2021

Company has faced nuisance lawsuits for waste pollution sprayed on local communities, resulting in hundreds of millions in judgements against it

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PRESS RELEASE

BREAKING: 9 Activists Arrested After Locking Down, Dumping Wildfire Debris at Gov. Newsom’s House

September 28, 2021

11 peaceful activists from the same group are still in custody on over $1 million total bail, following California slaughterhouse blockade Tuesday

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PRESS RELEASE

11 Peaceful Demonstrators Remain in Custody on $100,000 Bond Each, Following Protest at Chick-fil-A Supplying Slaughterhouse

September 27, 2021

Just-released hidden camera footage from inside the Foster Farms facility reveals fully-conscious animals routinely being improperly slaughtered -- conduct activists allege is criminal

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PRESS RELEASE

Animal Activist Fools Newsmax on Live TV, Posing as Tyson Foods CEO to Promote “Roasting Pigs Alive”

September 2, 2021

Imposter disavowed nonviolent animal rights activists as“terrorists”

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PRESS RELEASE

UC Berkeley Students Cover Sproul Hall Steps in Fake Blood, Protesting University’s Factory Farm Purchasing

August 24, 2021

Student-led investigation into UCB chicken supplier Tyson Foods shines new light on administration’s erroneous claims that it doesn’t supply from factory farms

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PRESS RELEASE

Following IPCC Climate Report, Berkeley Activists Slam Governor Newsom’s Wildfire Photo Op

August 8, 2021

Group behind Berkeley vegan transition bill says Newsom’s inaction on environmental impact of animal agriculture is unacceptable

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